India surpasses China as world’s largest gold consumer

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: India has surpassed China as the world’s largest gold consumer, as per the GFMS report.

According to the report, the consumption of gold in the first nine months of the year 2015 in India has been 642 tonnes whereas that in China has been 579 tonnes.

A fall in the prices of gold in the recent months has been one of the reasons for the increased demand for gold in India.

The Government has recently launched a Gold Monetization Scheme (GMS), Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) Scheme and Indian Gold Coin under gold monetization programme to reduce reliance n gold imports by encouraging households to monetize their gold.

These three gold schemes were announced in the Union Budget 2015-16 and were accordingly launched on 5th November, 2015.

The objective of the Gold Monetization Scheme is to mobilize the gold held by households and institutions in the country to put this gold into productive use and in the long-run to reduce the current account deficit by reducing the country’s reliance on the imports of gold to meet the domestic demand.